Lookout for Legendaries
by silentlysnowing
Summary: It began simply, with a run-of-the-mill Mew sighting. But once you’ve seen a Legendary, life can never again be ordinary…
1. Rebecca

**IMPORTANT UPDATE: **_So I finally got around to editing this story properly and fixing it up- some of the sentences were killing me. As a result, you've got a cleaner, slightly more detailed version of the story you might have read about a year ago! *sheepish grin* If you're rereading, nothing beyond basic syntax has changed before the sixth chapter; go there for an extension. If you're a new reader, welcome, and I hope you enjoy!_

_As a disclaimer; I am not Nintendo. Therefore, I do not own Pokemon. Also, I'm just doing this for fun when I should be writing more productive things, so don't expect consistent updates. Also also, I love critiques! So much! Seriously, I'm always looking to improve, so critiques are mega-helpful. Or, if you don't want to put the effort into thinking of rougher areas, a review might be nice._

* * *

In the forest, light falls through the trees in a peculiar way. It's warped by leaves and clouds, and it dances about the air and sparkles in your eyes. It makes you see things that aren't really there.

"Rebecca, Rebecca, Shannon's telling lies again!"

Rebecca looked up quickly from the book she had been reading, her glasses slipping partway down her nose. The children had run into her clearing, four of them chasing the fifth, who was wearing a perpetually stubborn expression. There was absolutely no chance that they would leave her alone if she politely asked them to leave, so she sighed and slipped her bookmark between the pages.

"It isn't a _lie_," Shannon, the red-headed seven-year-old, said angrily. She stopped in the middle of the clearing and, folding her arms over her chest, stated, "I saw her, I swear I did!"

Jack, who was nine and convinced that he knew everything there was to know, snorted. "What, are you kidding? You're not cool enough. Mew would never let you see him!"

"Anyway, you don't have proof," muttered Andrew, more bashfully than the other boy. He glanced at her awkwardly, then looked away.

Rebecca quietly cleared her throat, and the children stopped talking and looked over at her with the kind of speed that could only be gained by much repetition. "I suppose I'll have to remind you, again, that Mew is genderless," she said mildly.

Shannon pouted. "But- but it's not nice to call her an it!"

"That's not the point!" Jack interrupted. "I don't want her tellin' lies to Sammy." Sammy was Jack's little brother, the three-year-old who silently followed Jack everywhere. He was currently standing next to him, staring up at his brother with a wide grin.

Jessica, the only other girl and, consequently, Shannon's best friend, stepped up to stand next to Shannon supportively. "_I_ think that Shan's telling the truth. _I_ don't see why you should think she'd lie, when she's never lied before."

"What about the magical berry tree?" Andrew asked skeptically.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "That wasn't lying, it was exaggerating--"

Rebecca closed her eyes briefly, then clapped her hands once. "Children!"

The five fell silent once more, the boys on one side, girls on the other.

"Jessica," Rebecca said, "what is Mew's entry in the Pokedex?"

"Ah," Jessica said, blushing and shuffling her feet, "ah, it's, um, something to do with, uh, mirages, and--"

"You mean that, despite the fact that you are all having a quiz on the rarest Pokemon native to Kanto next week, you _don't know Mew's Pokedex entry?_"

Jessica looked at her feet. Glancing over the other children, Rebecca found that they were all very determinedly not looking directly at her.

Without a word, she unzipped the pouch tied around her waist, and fished out a small, boxlike item. It flipped open, and she spoke the Pokemon's name into it.

"_Mew_," the Pokedex said evenly, the sound reaching out to the children. "_The 'New Species' Pokemon. __So rare that it is still said to be a mirage by many experts. Only a few people have seen it worldwide._"

"There!" Jack said triumphantly, "if only a few people have ever seen him, there's no way you did, Shannon!"

"However," Rebecca continued quietly, "there are different entries by different people." She clicked on the 'Johto' option in the screen.

"_Mew, the 'New Species' Pokemon. Apparently, it appears only to those people who are pure of heart and have a strong desire to see it._"

"There you go!" Jessica said smugly as Shannon grinned. "Shan's definitely a good person, and she's always wanted to find a special Pokemon, so that's proof enough!"

"It only proves two things," Rebecca murmured, half-smiling. "One- there is no definite evidence to prove or contradict Shannon's story, and two- none of you have started studying for your quiz yet." She quirked up her eyebrows knowingly. "I suggest you all start proving me wrong on number two right away, or I may be forced to test you on your knowledge much, much sooner."

That was enough of an incentive for them- the five children were very quick to run back out of the clearing, their talk turning to that of which game they should play next as soon as they thought they were out of earshot. Rebecca grinned knowingly, and settled back to continue reading.

And if she thought she saw a flash of pink through the trees- well, that was just a trick of her imagination.

-

Rebecca had realized what her mother was trying to do after the fifth trainer passing through was invited over to dinner. Mossgreen Village was very small, without so much as a Pokemon Center to its name, and the only reason trainers came to it in the first place was to browse among the many specialty potions sold by Cassandra in her ever-prospering shop. It was always considered polite to feed trainers when one happened across them, but the constant influx of male trainers in their late-teens that had started to grace the dinner table had made Rebecca more than a little suspicious.

Her mother was old-fashioned, and, consequently, absolutely shocked that Rebecca still had not found a nice boy to settle down with at the elderly age of 19. And, while she could not find a fault in Rebecca's decision to become the new teacher in the small community, she could still rag on her for never travelling and meeting other people. Rebecca suspected that her mother hoped that she would decide to run off with one of the trainers one night.

Still, the boys were usually nice, and it did her father good to reminisce on the days when he had travelled through Kanto. Rebecca was polite, if silent, when the discussion grew heated at the dinner table.

"Things have changed!" her father told the young man visiting tonight over his meatloaf, tapping his fork on the plate. "Why, when I was on _my_ journey, Pokemon kept strictly to their territories. If you saw a Farfetch'd, you knew you were east of Fuschia! And there certainly weren't all sorts of Pokemon from other regions wandering around!"

"Yeah, but you have to take these reports with a grain of salt," the boy said mildly, buttering his fourth roll (trainers did eat _such_ a lot). "I really doubt that people have been seeing wild Eevee in the Safari Zone. It's probably just an advertising technique- and it'll certainly work!"

"It's preposterous!" her father exclaimed, waving his fork violently and (to her mother's chagrin) sending a tiny clump of mashed potato flying into the wall. "Everyone knows that all the Eevee today are tamed. If those little beasts start popping up in the wild, it'd completely mess up the species balance!" He sighed heavily and dug his fork back into the mutilated food on his plate. "Things like that are why you can't find a good Pokemon these days."

"That's debatable," the trainer muttered, shaking his head. "Still, you've got a point- the rarer Pokemon are harder to find these days. Heck, it's been ages since I've heard of a legendary sighting, and there was a bunch of them way back, remember?"

"But that doesn't mean they don't happen," Rebecca said quietly, her first comment in the conversation. "Wasn't there a news report about some kind of water Pokemon and her egg recently? Oh, and one of my students insists that she saw a Mew in the forest the other day."

The trainer looked rather startled for a moment; then he shook his head. "Mew? Man, and I thought it was hard to find a Chansey. Seriously, I doubt it. Maybe the kid saw a Jigglypuff or something." He tapped his fork on the edge of his plate for a few seconds, still frowning; then, noticing that she was still looking at him, he smiled. "But yeah, I heard about that egg, too. Wonder if anything ever came of it?"

With that, the conversation turned to the rumors of wild breeding techniques that had been adapted recently, which were exagerrated and almost certainly false. But, as Rebecca kept an eye on the trainer for the rest of the meal, she noticed that he looked more thoughtful than amused.


	2. Ferk

"Found him," Ferk whispered quietly to his partner.

They were currently in the far back of the Safari Zone, only a few minutes of time left to their game. It had taken many tries (and a heck of a lot of money), but they had finally managed to track down the shiny Pinsir that had been sighted so often in the past week. He was currently dozing on the lower branch of a tree, his blue shell gleaming in the sunlight.

Ferk glanced over at his partner, his Shedinja, and unhooked its Pokeball from his belt with a smile. "Thanks for helping with Mind Reader, Dinj'. You wanna stay out or go back in your ball?"

"Sheh." Shedinja lowered the crescent that floated over its head and quietly disappeared in a flash of red light that zoomed back into the ball. Ferk put it back on his belt, then studied the Pinsir again. Of course, he knew it would be incredible if he could manage to catch the Pokemon, but he also knew that that would be unlikely. It was more important to get the basic readings done first.

He crept up to the tree, Pokedex in hand. It was already set to silent and in scanning mode, so he'd be able to get the readings on the Pinsir's basic statistics without waking him up. Any further research could only be done on a willing Pokemon (or, at least, a captive one), so he'd have to do his best with the Safari balls.

He was close enough now to switch the scanning function on and point his Pokedex towards the Pinsir, letting the device do its job. The Pinsir hadn't stirred, either, so there'd be a chance that he might be able to catch him in his sleep--

Just then, a song started playing from his knapsack.

"_I am the very picture of a Pokemon Professor,_" (1)

Of course, the Pinsir jerked awake at the first noise and quickly scuttled up the tree, stopping the flow of data abruptly. Ferk cursed under his breath, dropping the Pokedex so he could grab a Safari ball from the pouch at his side. He kept one eye on the Pinsir as he scrambled to open the knapsack with his other hand- he'd have to do this the hard way.

"_I've information effort, dynamic, and individual,_"

The Pinsir roared angrily up in the tree, and started using some move- probably Brick Break- to send a volley of branches down onto Ferk's head. The trainer yelped and dodged away from the tree, brushing tiny twigs and bark off of the cap that enveloped his head as he stumbled away. Unsurprisingly, as soon as he was out of range the Pinsir dove down and tried to run in the opposite direction. Ferk threw the Safari ball at the Pokemon half-heartedly. The Pinsir knocked it away with ease and stampeded into the distance before Ferk could grab another ball, leaving him to fume and continue fishing around in his knapsack.

"_I know of the Gym Leaders, and I--_"

He finally managed to grab his Pokegear out of the bag and snapped it open, jerking it up to his ear. "_What,_ Professor Oak?"

"Well, there's no reason to be so testy, Ferk," the Professor said, surprised.

"_I was just about to finish getting information on the freakin' Pinsir!_"Ferk shouted. A female Nidoran who had been passing by, minding her own business, ran for quieter areas. "_The one that YOU told me to go and look for! The one that I've spent all day searching for!_"

"I'm sorry, Ferk, but we have more important matters to deal with right now. You can play with shiny Pokemon later."

"_You're _the one who wanted to-- oh, never mind." Ferk rubbed his forehead, his anger seeping away as quickly as it had sprung up. "What's up?"

"I've had reports of several Mew sightings in a forest south of the Safari Zone," Oak said coolly, as if he was used to Ferk's sudden outbursts- which he was. "You're the closest field agent, so I'd like you to head down there and investigate."

"… Mew sightings." Ferk scrunched his eyes closed. "You've got to be kidding me. Since when do we take Mew sightings seriously?"

"Now, Ferk, we know that Mew is not just a legend, as there have been legitimate sightings before."

"Sure, by Ash Ketchum. But seriously, Professor, your protégé's seen practically all the legendaries, he's not exactly _typical_. And I've met plenty of trainers willing to fake a Mew sighting, just for the attention."

"Still! I want you to look into this one. If Mew really is out there, it is our duty to study it and determine as much about it as we can. Many scientists have speculated that pure research on a current Mew's DNA would give us valuable information on all Pokemon, and-"

"Okay, Professor, I get it." Ferk opened his eyes and stared up into the sky. "Where's this forest?"

"It's surrounding Mossgreen Village- your Pokegear should have the location. One of my trainers got the latest information from a girl there, so you may want to talk to her. I'll send you her information- she was a trainer, once, so I'll at least have her name and address in my database."

"'Kay then." Ferk absent-mindedly picked up his Pokedex from the ground and stuffed it into one of his pockets. "Alright, I'm out." He turned the device off and dropped it back into his bag, then sighed and surveyed the field. A ranger in what seemed to be a camouflage one-piece outfit was walking up to him- his time was up.

"All that hard work, and not even a half-decent reading to show for it," he muttered to himself as he started walking forward to meet the ranger.

-

"Rebecca?" Cassandra straightened up and looked at him in surprise, placing her pestle gently back into its bowl. "I didn't know she had friends outside of town."

Ferk grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, where the purple cap that enveloped his head ended. Many straggly locks of strawberry blonde hair had already snuck their way out of his cap; he needed to get a haircut, the next time he found himself in a city. "She's the friend of a friend, sort of. I'm trying to track down this guy I battled once, who came from here. Maxie? Maybe you know him?"

She went from surprised to pleased quickly. Ferk had done his research well- Maxie was a pretty successful battler in the competitive leagues, and he had started his journey on the same day as Rebecca. He'd figured that Mossgreen would be proud of their semi-famous trainer. "Oh, of course! Yes, those two were the best of friends when they were younger." She carefully sprinkled a few drops of water into the mixture she was grinding, and got back to work. "Rebecca should be teaching the kids right now, out in the clearing. You can't miss it, there's a path straight from the village to it. Of course, she might get upset if you interrupt her class--"

"I'll keep that in mind." He flashed a radiant smile at her, entirely pleased with himself, and bent down to rub the head of a lean Persian who had wandered into the room. "By the way, I've heard of your potions before, Cass. They sound impressive."

"Well, we're always right here if you're interested in buying," Cassandra said with a little laugh. Her voice was light and pleasant, and Ferk found himself laughing in return.

"I might do that. Thanks!"

The village was very small, and Ferk found the path without a problem. He wandered down it easily, trying to look as though he hadn't a care in the world. Before he asked any questions about Mew, he had to gain this Rebecca's trust; that way, it'd be a lot easier to tell if she was telling the truth about the sighting. Of course, Oak had said in his report that Rebecca had claimed one of her students had seen the Mew. If that was true, getting the trust of the teacher would get him much closer to gaining the trust of the student.

And then, surprisingly quickly, he had reached the clearing.

It had a nice shade to it, speckled and light, as the sunlight playing through the branches of trees overhead created dappled patterns on the ground. In the center, where most rays of sunlight fell, a young woman was sitting in front of a small group of children, talking quietly as she wrote on a small, portable whiteboard. He observed her silently, taking advantage of the fact that she hadn't seen him. Her hair was very dark, cut off midway between ears and shoulders, and it curled haphazardly. Her eyes were mostly hidden behind a pair of thick glasses, but they seemed to be light in color- green, maybe?- and her skin was darker than his, olive-ish. She was wearing practical clothes, like everyone else in the village.

He'd be able to charm her quickly enough.

"So," Rebecca was saying, "when you're adding two fractions, you need to multiply each numerator by the opposite denominator, and then add the tops together. If you want to make it simpler, you can multiply both sides by the least common multiple of the denominators instead-"

Ferk coughed quietly, and the small group looked in his direction.

"Rebecca, right?" he asked, a kind smile spreading across his face. He was cute, he knew it.

"Yes," she replied abruptly. "Excuse me, but class is in session right now. Can this wait until later?"

"Well, I'm in a bit of a rush…"

She slowly stood up, and the kids started muttering excitedly amidst themselves. Ferk noted that she was a bit taller than him, and probably a year or two older. More interesting was the fact that he didn't see any Pokeballs on her belt- if she had been a trainer before, she didn't have any Pokemon with her now.

"I might not have made myself clear," she said coldly, folding her arms over her chest and staring him down through her glasses. "My class has a very specific schedule to follow- math, practical Pokemon care, geography, and reading today. We can't mix up the schedule for every trainer who happens to wander in."

_Ouch_, he thought. Outwardly, he was still entirely pleasant. "What if I assisted in the lessons?" he asked cheerfully, looking down at the students in order to include them in the conversation.

Rebecca looked entirely incredulous. "How--"

"They can meet my Pokemon! That's pretty practical, talking to a real Pokemon. C'mon, guys, what do you think?"

Of course, the kids were instantly clamoring to meet them. Rebecca looked extremely annoyed, but she gave him a curt nod. That was all the permission he needed; he unhooked his first Pokeball and tossed it into the air lazily. "Come on out, Shedinja."

Shedinja materialized into the air, floating calmly, as he always did. Ferk could tell that Rebecca was surprised. Not many trainers chose to train Shedinja, seeing as a single move could be its downfall, but Ferk had always liked it best of all.

"Andrew," Rebecca said suddenly, "what's Shedinja's special ability?"

One of the boys chewed on his lower lip for a few seconds before replying. "Wonder guard! It can only be damaged by attacks that are super effective."

"Can we touch it?" one of the girls asked tentatively.

"Sure, but Dinj' isn't very pettable," Ferk said, grinning. "You might like my next Pokemon better- let's go, Girafarig!"

Girafarig materialized on the ground, her tail's head blinking and glancing around. The children didn't hesitate now; they swarmed around her, stroking her soft coat and jabbering with excitement. Girafarig, always a placid Pokemon, stood still and quietly chewed at the grass under her feet. Ferk looked at Rebecca, hoping to see her softened by the obvious effect the Pokemon had on the kids; unfortunately, she was still standing back a bit, watching them with a tiny frown on her face.

Figuring that it couldn't hurt to let the rest of his Pokemon out, Ferk unhooked his other four Pokeballs and tossed them casually into the air, catching the balls back again after they had let their occupants out. Jynx was taking a nap (which was good- he didn't entirely trust Jynx around children), and Probopass was still indulging in the sulking fit which had started the week before when he'd caught a cold, but Shuckle and Breloom were quick enough to join the children.

"You have quite a unique team," Rebecca told him, entirely serious.

Ferk nodded casually, watching as one of the girls knelt down to talk to Shuckle. "I always liked the unusual Pokemon the best, the ones people didn't train as often. And it's so much fun to watch other trainers forget their types, and try to use a ghost Pokemon against Girafarig, or something like that." The girl laughed in delight as Shuckle waggled her legs in the air expressively.

Rebecca had looked back at the children. "And, Jack, Girafarig won't be affected by ghost types because…?"

"'Cause, uh, it's part normal," the oldest boy said. He was dodging around Breloom, aiming mock-punches at the Pokemon, as a much younger boy sitting in the grass cheered him on. Breloom, entirely used to feints, ignored him. "Hey, mister, your Breloom's good! Can it use some moves?"

"Only once you tell me what the first fighting-type move Breloom learns is," Ferk said with an easy grin, falling into Rebecca's habit of quizzing the kids.

"Mach punch!"

Ferk blinked, mildly surprised. Rebecca apparently noticed, because she took pity on him. "Jack really loves fighting-type Pokemon. He's memorized an excessive number of facts about them." She shook her head, the lenses of her glasses flashing in rays of sunlight. "He could do with learning other facts as well."

"Other Pokemon are boring."

Ferk laughed. "Alright, then. Breloom, use Mach Punch on one of the trees."

"Bre!" Breloom rocked back onto the heels of his feet and angled his right claw back. It started glowing, brightening to white, and he bounced forward, running at half-speed towards a large tree at the edge of the clearing.

Rebecca, who had been saying something quietly to one of the other students, abruptly straightened. She took in Breloom's charge with a quickly growing glare, then snapped "Stop," in a clipped tone.

Ferk was startled, of course, but her voice had enough of an edge to it that he decided to take back the order first, and think second. However, even before he had a chance to open his mouth, Breloom had lowered his claw and cut a sharp turn. He slowed down until he could stop, the claw fading back down to its usual, duller shade.

Ferk frowned, confused as to why Breloom had obeyed another person's order for no particular reason. He hadn't even hesitated, so it couldn't have been a conscious choice.

Rebecca, still at a distance from all of the Pokemon, was picking up her whiteboard with a determined air about her, apparently unaware that anything unusual had occurred. "Honestly, you don't need to tear a gash in a tree just to show off. Alright, guys, you've had a bit of fun with the Pokemon, but now it's time to get back to work." She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and looked over at Ferk. "Trainer, if you could--"

"Aww, that's not fair," Jack said at once. The other children were complaining as well, insisting that they hadn't had enough time with the Pokemon at all, and anyway, it'd be time for lunch soon, so couldn't they just play with the Pokemon until then?

"I don't think they'd mind," Ferk commented helpfully. "They always love getting a break from training."

Rebecca glared at him.

"_Please?"_ the little girl with red hair pleaded, hugging Girafarig around the neck possessively. "We never get to see new Pokemon!"

Rebecca took a small device that looked like a Pokegear out of her pocket to check the time, then half-smiled. "Fine. Fifteen minutes with the Pokemon, then lunch, and then back here early so we can get more productive work done. And I better hear some pretty good reports on what you observe from them when we get back to work."

The idea of it being an assignment put a bit of a dampener on their excitement, but the kids still seemed eager to play with the Pokemon as much as possible. Ferk watched for a minute or two to make sure that they were behaving properly, then walked purposefully over to Rebecca. She was observing the children from a slight distance, and pointedly ignored him as he walked up.

"So, am I allowed to talk to you now?" he asked cheerfully.

"I don't see how I could stop you."

Ferk shrugged inwardly and decided to go for the gold. "Well, this may sound a bit odd, but I'm looking for an certain Pokemon--"

"You mean Mew."

He hadn't expected her to get to it so quickly. "Well, yeah. One of those kids saw it recently?"

She finally turned to look at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Look, kid, I don't know how you heard about it, but let me clear this up- one of my students _claims_ she saw Mew. That means nothing whatsoever. They're young, they make up stories all the time."

"But have you talked to her? Asked her where she saw it?"

She rolled her eyes and abruptly stalked off into the forest. Ferk hesitated for a moment, glancing back at his Pokemon- but they could take care of themselves, and he doubted that Rebecca would put herself into any kind of dangerous situation. He quickly followed her in, running in an attempt to catch up.

They didn't walk very far, but he had completely lost sight of the clearing by the time he had reached her. "What gives?" he asked, slightly annoyed now. "I just asked you a question."

"And I'm answering it." She suddenly stopped and turned around, putting a fallen tree between the two of them. "_This_ is the forest. We always tell the kids not to go far in, but everyone explores when they're young. How do you think she'd know where she was when she saw it? And with no location, there's no proof, only the word of a child."

Ferk didn't reply.

He was too busy staring in utter disbelief at the small, lightly-tinted (and probably pink) Pokemon which was hovering in the air behind Rebecca, observing her with a curious air.

-

_(1) Who's That Parody-Song?_

_It's "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General"! (Hypotenuse!)_


	3. Mew

Rebecca had known right away that this newcomer would be trouble. He acted far too helpful and innocent, so that his personality didn't match up with his physical appearance (which was just plain weird- who would ever highlight their hair with blue streaks, and then wear multi-colored clothing?) or his team. He was acting a part, and she didn't appreciate that.

Of course, he was behaving really strangely at the moment, gaping at her like there was no tomorrow. And honestly, she hadn't shown him up _that_ badly. His reaction was entirely disproportionate, and she was tempted to wave a hand in front of his face.

Immediately after that thought, a tittering sound came from behind her. Rebecca froze, then slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder. If there was some sort of wild Pokemon behind her, she didn't want to startle it into attacking.

As she turned, she saw that the Pokemon was pink… and had a long tail… and was _floating in midair_…

The Mew watched in apparent amusement as she twisted around completely, unable to believe what she was seeing. For a moment, she had an inane impulse to grab her Pokedex and check, to make sure that this wasn't a Ditto playing games- but she was pretty sure that Ditto couldn't fly without wings.

"Mew!" the Pokemon said happily, circling around her without a care. Rebecca turned with the Pokemon, to keep her eyes on it, and saw the boy (she _still_ didn't know his name) in the background. She was instantly glad that his Pokemon were all back in the clearing- she didn't want him to try and battle the Mew, or, worse, attempt to catch it. However, he had his Pokedex out, and he was pointing it straight at Mew. A fine green splay of light was coming out of a sensor in the item, and the light enveloped the Pokemon as it continued to examine her.

Then- almost as if it could hear her thoughts- Rebecca felt a sense of deep amusement, amusement connected to the trainer, and somehow knew that that feeling was coming from the Mew. It wasn't like any sort of communication; only a basic emotion, as if she had been playing around with the dials on a radio and suddenly tuned in to a specific frequency.

The Mew flew in closer now, cocking its head to one side, as if puzzled. Rebecca was starting to catch several other emotions; mainly curiosity, but also confusion, wariness, and an underlying tenor of fear, defeat, and resignation, which confused her. Overlying everything was a continually happy, complacent tone, a simple joy in life.

She still hadn't completely processed the idea that she was seeing a _Mew_, so it was easy to stay calm and only flinch a little bit as the Mew suddenly darted forward and grabbed her glasses off of her face. She was as blind as a Zubat without them, though, and her surroundings became nothing but blurry green with a dash of pink. After waiting for a few moments, she reached towards the pink blob that was Mew, trying to get them back.

The blob abruptly disappeared.

She could feel panic setting in, now- she was in the middle of the forest, with no glasses and only a trainer who was probably hopelessly lost. That was _bad_. Very, very bad. However, she knew that Mew was supposed to be a very intelligent Pokemon, so it might be worth a try…

"I'm sorry," she said calmly, keeping her eyes open wide (as if that would help). "May I please have my glasses back? I need them." She held her hand out in front of her, palm up.

Slowly, she felt the emotions return, slightly shaken up. The wariness had grown, but after Rebecca continued to wait patiently, the pink blob slid back into view in front of her, and a small object was placed in her hand. The Mew's paw brushed against her skin as it set the glasses down; its fur was silky and soft.

She shoved the glasses back onto her face, and the world slid back into focus. The Mew was now floating at a greater distance from her, much more cautious, but she could tell that it was starting to calm down.

"Thank you," she said, managing to smile. The Mew seemed pleased, doing a back-flip in the air.

Then, behind the Mew, the trainer quietly closed his Pokedex and looked at her, clearly still amazed. "Do--"

The Mew disappeared again, and Rebecca could tell this time that it wasn't just darting off in the air- it was actually turning invisible.

"_No._" He looked around franticly. "Mew, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't bother. It's gone." Rebecca sat down on the grass quickly, suddenly feeling light-headed. She didn't know how, she just knew that the Mew had flown off, and that it was gone permanently this time.

"Ugh. Well, I certainly managed to ruin that." He stared moodily up at the treetops for a few seconds; then his face split into a wide grin. "Still, Rebecca, I could kiss you!"

"Don't," she muttered, resting her head on her knees.

"A Mew! A real, live Mew! And it even stayed long enough for me to get the readings done! Oh, man, Oak is going to _spaz out_." He rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Not to mention that it really seemed to like you, and Mews get really picky about people, you know." He stuffed his Pokedex back into his pocket, still grinning. "Well, that settles it. The Professor will definitely want to meet you, so I'll just have to take you down to Pallet Town."

"I think Mew has good taste, seeing as it didn't like _you_," Rebecca muttered. Then the rest of his sentence sunk in. "Wait- _what?_"

"C'mon, I'll go pick up my Pokemon, then we can head out." He started walking forward and whistling cheerfully, which only served to irritate Rebecca even more.

"There's no way that I'm going to drop everything, just so I can run off and talk to some professor," she retorted angrily. "Heck, I don't even know who you are, but I _do_ know that you're incompetent at everything I've seen you do so far."

"Like?"

She paused, fumbling for an answer. "For instance, you're walking in the wrong direction."

He stopped in front of her, squinting at the trees ahead. Then he shrugged. "Ah, we did skip the introductions. Well, my name's Ferk Ramalo, and I'm a Pokemon trainer. Nice to meet you."

"I'm _not_ running off on some kind of adventure with you."

Ferk shook his head. "You make it sound like adventures are bad things! And anyway, it wouldn't be much of an adventure, you'd just be talking to Professor Oak. Then you could come back here and live out the rest of your life as boringly as you wanted to."

She crossed her arms, glaring up at him. "And how would we get there?"

"It's a surprise!" he said cheerfully.

"_Hell_ no. No surprises."

He pouted. "Man, you're no fun. Look, you'll have to show me how to get back, anyway- you can't just leave me here, in the middle of nowhere. I'll tell you once we're back in civilization. Or, you know. Close to it."

He was right about leaving him lost, at least. Rebecca got back up, dusting her pants off, and haughtily headed off in the correct direction. She didn't actually know this particular part of the forest well, but everyone in the village developed a good sense of direction as they grew up, just to keep from constantly getting lost, and she had walked in a relatively straight line before.

"Hey, wait!" Ferk had to jog to catch up with her. "You have issues with walking out in the middle of conversations, don't you?"

"I'm not going with you," she said in a monotonic voice.

"You'll come around."

She ignored him.

They reached the clearing pretty quickly, since they hadn't walked too far into the forest to begin with. The children were gone, off to lunch, and Ferk's Pokemon were relaxing in the dappled sunlight. Ferk went straight to them, greeting each one by name and telling them all about the entire incident with the Mew. Watching him interact with his team, Rebecca had to admit to herself that he at least was able to show genuine kindness to Pokemon.

But that didn't matter. She was done with the boy, and she'd be perfectly happy if she never saw him again. Mew could remain a bright memory, a spark to mark the end of her teenage years. She walked quietly towards the path that led back to the village, already planning out a valid excuse for why she was returning late for lunch.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes. Of course, Ferk didn't know when to give up. "I already told you, I'm staying here. You can leave without me."

She turned around to give him a glare that would accentuate her statement, and found that he had already gotten most of his Pokemon back inside their Pokeballs. Jynx, now awake and the only Pokemon still out, followed him as he ran up to her.

"Really now, Beki," he said, grinning, "you've seen a Mew, all up-close and personal, too. You'll at least need to put some kind of description of anything you noticed down in writing. Science is depending on you!"

She had been spluttering since the beginning of his sentence. "_Beki?_" Rebecca snorted. "Well, kid, if you had a chance of convincing me before, it's gone now. Goodbye."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Well, I don't see how you can do anything about it," she said in a fake-pleasant tone, turning to leave.

"You never did find out how I was planning to get to Pallet Town," Ferk said casually, stopping her mid-turn.

She sighed, growing more impatient. "Does it matter?"

"Actually, it does. I think I'll show you." He suddenly whirled around, so that he was facing his Pokemon. "Jynx, teleport to the lab!"

Before Rebecca could say a word, Jynx clapped her hands together, and the world went black.


	4. Oak

Pallet Town was quiet, peaceful, and severely overrated. Everyone who was anyone knew that its main (and only) attraction was the Oak Pokemon Research Laboratory, and countless families attempted to move to the area, in the hopes of getting their children successful futures as trainers. However, the mayor of the town was determined to keep its population down, and most of the families living there had resided in the area for centuries. It was quiet now, out by the fence that surrounded the lab's territory, with most of the residents eating their home-cooked lunches in their kitchens, and Professor Oak had taken his own meal (a cold sandwich) out to the fence, so he could watch the herd of Tauros in their daily stampede across the plain.

"I am going to KILL you!"

It wasn't every day that Oak got death threats, so he turned around curiously to see who was yelling at him. Three figures had appeared out of nowhere on the road in front of the lab, just in front of the fence. He recognized Ferk rather quickly- the boy always stuck out like a sore thumb, with his multi-colored appearance- and his Jynx lounging around behind him. There was a young woman with him, who was the source of the commotion. Oak felt a vague sense of déjà vu, like he had seen the woman before, though he was quite sure that she wasn't one of his trainers.

"Thanks for helping out, Jynx!" Ferk said quickly, returning the Pokemon before she could even reply. Now, Oak wondered to himself, what was Ferk doing back here? He had specifically told him to go and investigate the Mew sighting.

"How _dare_ you teleport me here against my will? I'll have you know that this is kidnapping, which is illegal no matter _what _kind of excuse you have!" The woman had grabbed her Pokegear out of her pocket, and was currently waggling it at Ferk threateningly. "If you don't get your Jynx to teleport me back _right now_, I'm going to call the police, and _then_ you'll be in trouble!"

"Well, uh, I can't exactly do that," Ferk said helplessly. She flipped the Pokegear open with an ominous air. "No, wait! It's not that I _won't_, it's that I _can't_- Jynx can only teleport to places she's really familiar with. It's risky otherwise."

"Well, then, _why the hell did you take me here in the first place?_"

"Ahh…" Ferk backed up a step, and Oak, understandably confused by now, decided to intervene.

"I've always said that you have a way with women, Ferk," he called out cheerfully, carefully getting down from the fence and tossing the rest of his sandwich to a Munchlax that was sunbathing nearby. "I just never said that it was a good way."

"Hi, Professor," Ferk said, smiling cheekily. "I've got a lot to tell _you_."

"If you're just going to complain about that Pinsir again, I have important work that needs to be done. Or, if I don't, I can make some up." He turned to the girl and smiled. "And what's your name, young lady?"

"Rebecca Lania." She sounded exasperated. "Listen, Professor Oak, it's a great honor to meet you and all, but I have a class I need to teach, so could you please have one of your psychic Pokemon teleport me back to Mossgreen Village--"

He snapped his fingers, pleased. "Ah, that's right! You're the Rebecca from the Mew sighting. Well, I can certainly provide you with transportation, but could you perhaps write me a report on any details your student might have noticed while you're here? Even unconfirmed sightings need to be documented."

For some reason, Ferk was laughing. "She can do better than that, Professor."

Oak looked at Ferk, skeptical. "How so?"

-

"Ferk, I could kiss you!"

For some reason, Ferk looked uncomfortable. "Please, don't."

Oak ignored him, scanning through the data in delight. He had rushed the two into his lab as soon as Ferk had told him what they'd seen, and uploaded the information from Ferk's Pokedex onto his main computer without hesitation. Now, rotating in three dimensions on the screen, there was a representation of Mew, complete with all the physical readings the Pokedex could obtain from a distance. It was in no way complete, but it was still the best data he had seen on the Pokemon since Mewtwo had destroyed Team Rocket's records.

"Of course, I'm going to need the exact coordinates of where you found the Mew, not to mention your individual observations, and do you think the Mew might still be in the forest? If we could get a DNA sample--"

"Woah, calm down, Professor." Ferk had said similar things many times in the past twenty minutes, but Oak wasn't sure why. "I doubt we'd be able to find the Mew again. It just acted like it was interested in Rebecca, and ran away as soon as I talked."

"_Really?_" Oak turned to Rebecca, who was drooping on one of the stools. "My dear, that's incredible! You must have a special affinity with Pokemon, there's no--"

"No," she said quietly.

"Pardon?"

"Look, I'll write down whatever if it's really important, but I have to get home." She rubbed her left arm awkwardly, bangs hiding her eyes. "And- and I think I know why the Mew was curious about me, but I don't think it'd want to see me again. I mean, it seemed _mainly_ curious, but also more than a little bit scared. So, I can't do anything."

"Why wouldn't it come back to see you?" Ferk looked skeptical as he leaned forward, scooting his rolling chair towards her. "It seemed to like you."

"It didn't like me. Pokemon…" She took a deep breath, then let it out in a gusty whoosh. "Pokemon in general don't like me, okay? They never have."

Professor Oak had to restrain himself, to keep from dancing in his seat. He _lived_ for these opportunities. "How do they not like you? Are they aggressive, do they attack you?"

"No." She barked out a short laugh. "What, did you think I was attacked as a kid? That _I'm_ scared of Pokemon? No. I'm fine with Pokemon. I mean, I'm not obsessed with them, like some people are, but I don't mind them. They just, well, ignore me. Even if a Pokemon is really nice to everyone else, it'll act like I don't exist. My starter- a Poliwag- always acted really distant with me, and I couldn't figure out what she didn't like with me. Mew's the only exception I've seen so far."

"I doubt that!" Ferk sounded fierce, and both Oak and Rebecca looked at him, surprised. "I mean, how many Pokemon have you seen? And you didn't give _my_ team a chance. In fact-" he grabbed one of his Pokeballs off of his belt.

"Not Muk!" Oak said quickly. He still remembered the last time Ferk's Muk had slithered across his floor. Delia had taken three days to get the floor back to its original state, and had refused to let him use his equipment while she was cleaning.

Ferk gave him a wounded look, and clicked open the Pokeball. Shuckle came out onto the floor in a burst of light, craning her long neck forward to examine the surroundings with interest.

"Shuckle's my most friendly Pokemon," Ferk said proudly, leaning down to pick her up with a grunt. Shuckle looked over at Oak, rotating her head with such a curious expression that Oak couldn't help but laugh.

"Uh-huh." Rebecca shook her head quietly, but still leaned forward, to get closer to the Pokemon. "Hey, Shuckle, what's up?"

Shuckle curved her neck around so that it was all twisted up, and looked at her skeptically. She then drew her legs slightly more into her shell and turned back to look at Oak, saying "Shuck, kul shu," emphatically.

Ferk looked down at his Pokemon, eyebrows raised. "She… I think she saw you, noticed you, she just doesn't really care. She's more interested in Professor Oak."

"Exactly!" Oak banged his fist on his computer's table, making both teenagers jump and Shuckle waggle her legs. "Now, Ferk, see what you did just now? You interpreted Shuckle's actions, knew at an intuitive level what she was thinking. Can you do that with all of your Pokemon?"

"Um, yeah, mostly." Ferk scratched the back of his neck. "Most trainers that I know can. It's easier with Pokemon that you've known for longer, though."

"Precisely!" Oak turned back to Rebecca, who looked confused. "I've done most of my research on the interactions between humans and Pokemon, and I've found that the two species have an emotional bond. It's why we can team up, and work together. Now, Rebecca, from what you've described, you have never felt that connection with Pokemon in general- but when you met Mew, you could tell that it was curious, but a little scared. Could you sense anything else about it?"

She was startled, he could tell. "Yeah, a bit. I could sense its emotions, kind of, and it was almost like Mew was communicating by using them. And I could tell when Mew left."

"So you could connect to Mew." Oak turned to his computer, tremendously excited. There had been various humans over the years who were capable of sympathizing with legendary Pokemon, but, with the exception of Ash Ketchum, they could usually only relate to one legendary, one that they were similar to in personality. However, he had a growing suspicion about Rebecca, and it was a suspicion he wanted to test.

"We're going on a field trip!" he announced.

-

"I really don't see why we're doing this," Rebecca announced, her arms folded tightly around her body. "I think I already proved my point with Shuckle."

Oak ignored her pleasantly, scanning the clusters of Pokemon as they passed them. Rebecca had been entirely right about Pokemon ignoring her- while many of the Pokemon they passed (all of them domestic, since they were in the corral) came up to greet him or Ferk, none of them seemed interested in her. Of course, that only strengthened his theory.

He had called in Tracy from his outdoor duties and instructed him to meet them at the designated location. In fact, he could see him now, sketchpad at his side, waving at them from a small plot of flowers. It didn't come as a surprise at all when a brilliant blue ball came flying out of the flowers, forcing Tracy to dodge to the side.

"It's got such temper problems," Tracy muttered as he walked forward to meet them. "Hello, Professor! I hope you didn't just ask me to come here so I could get energy balls shot at me."

"Of course not." Oak smiled at his assistant, then gestured towards Rebecca. "In fact, I believe we have the solution to our little problem right here!"

It looked as though Rebecca was going to reply heatedly, but Ferk interrupted her by jumping forward and pulling out his Pokedex in an almost reflexive way. "Hey- I've never seen that Pokemon before! What species is it?"

They all looked towards the Pokemon he was pointing to, which had just walked out of the flowers. It was very small, with a plump white body and green fur on its back; moreover, it was looking up at them all with an undoubtedly irritated expression.

_I'm a Shaymin, stupid. _It studied them all, then waved its nose in Rebecca's direction. _You. Who are you?_

Professor Oak smiled. His hypothesis was proved.


	5. Shaymin

_Well? Who are you?_

Rebecca stared in disbelief. Coming from Mew, she might have accepted telepathy without protest; but from this tiny, cutesy little thing? It didn't even look the least bit Psychic.

_Aren't you rude! _The tiny Pokemon rolled onto its back, stubbly legs up in the air. _But you're interesting. That's worth something. The others are boring, _especially_ when they won't let me go home._ It turned its muzzle towards Professor Oak during the last comment, its small blue eyes narrowed malevolently.

"Don't even think about it." Surprisingly, it was Ferk who responded to the threat, snatching a Pokeball off of his belt and holding it up warningly.

_As if you mortals could do anything to me._ Shaymin yawned.

"Wait- you can hear it, too?" Rebecca allowed herself a tiny internal sigh of relief. Strange connections to legendary Pokemon, maybe she could deal with that. But weird telepathic powers? Absolutely not.

_Of course,_ Shaymin answered before Ferk could say a word. _But you still haven't answered my question._

"I'm Rebecca," she said lamely, sitting down on the ground. She looked around at the others, and noticed that the guy who was apparently Oak's assistant had a pad out and was sketching like his life depended on it. Weird.

_You're not a Pokemon, silly, your name doesn't mean anything to me. _The Shaymin suddenly rolled back onto its feet and scampered forward, standing on its hind legs and placing its paws on one of her knees. _You don't know who you are, do you? That's ridiculous!_

"You see?" Professor Oak was practically gloating as he talked to his assistant. "The same thing occurred with Mew earlier today, apparently. Just think of all the information we could get!"

_He's always like this,_ Shaymin thought, boredom seeping through the words. _Information, data, it's all so useless. I think,_ and it stretched out its body, twisting its back around, _that he needs to take more naps._

"How'd you get here?" Ferk asked, sitting down across from her.

Shaymin looked at him distrustfully, and curled itself up into a ball in the grass. _Trickery. Honestly, you'd think a Legendary could go to sleep without having to worry about freaky women with super-powerful Pokeballs._ It sniffed audibly. _Not that any ball can hold me when I want out- this is really just an inconvenience. I'd much rather be back in Glacidea, but do these humans care? No. _It looked up at Rebecca, blue eyes sparkling. _Maybe you could convince them otherwise?_

"Don't listen to a word it says- ah, thinks," Professor Oak said, coming to stand over them. "Cynthia caught it fairly, and she's planning on letting it back out in the wild once we're done researching it, since it refuses to cooperate when she tries to make it battle."

"Cynthia?" Rebecca murmured, her eyebrows raised questioningly.

"Sinnoh champion," Ferk explained, eyes on Shaymin, who turned its head to look at him. "So, if you just want to go home, why don't you work with the Professor?"

It looked back at Rebecca, letting out a skeptical "Shay!" _Is he always this stupid?_

"I haven't seen him act otherwise," she murmured in reply, as Professor Oak nodded emphatically. Ferk groaned and fell backwards onto the grass, complaining loudly that everyone always made fun of him.

_Every Pokemon knows that you humans can't be trusted,_ Shaymin continued patiently. _A Pokemon gets caught, they suddenly don't care about being free anymore. Well, you're not going to brainwash me with your silly tests!_

"I wouldn't say that's always true," Ferk replied, still lying back on the grass, but lifting his head so that he could see. "I've caught Pokemon before that didn't like me. Sometimes they'd change their minds, sometimes they'd grow used to it, but sometimes I'd have to trade them to a different trainer, or even release them. It varies."

Shaymin cocked its head to the side, thinking.

"And besides," Rebecca said, glancing up at Oak, "you're not exactly a normal Pokemon. I doubt that we'd be able to brainwash you, even if we wanted to.

_How am I supposed to know? You never tell me what's going on._ Shaymin had gotten back onto its feet, and was now looking up at the Professor.

"Well, you don't give us many opportunities," he said with a small smile, "with how you're always attacking us at the slightest provocation."

Rebecca watched the small Pokemon, thinking. The others weren't acting like they had noticed it, but there was a certain feeling about it, an idea that was becoming clearer by the minute.

She leaned down, and whispered, "You don't have to be scared."

Shaymin looked up, eyes unblinking.

"You're stronger than you think," she confided quietly. Ferk was watching them carefully, but she didn't think he could hear her. "And these people are… they're good people. I don't think they mean you harm."

Shaymin looked at her, a thoughtful gleam in its eyes, and then purposefully strode over to Oak's feet.

_So you're saying, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I get to fly free?_

-

"That was really interesting," Ferk said, stretching his legs out over the carpet.

"Mmm." Rebecca studied the bookshelf, trying to puzzle out what the archaic titles were focused on. The living room of the laboratory looked like it hadn't been remodeled in years, but was comfortable in its own way.

Professor Oak and his assistant had rushed upstairs at the first chance they got, eager to run many tests on the sullen, but now compliant, Shaymin. They'd left Rebecca and Ferk on the main floor of the lab, Oak hurriedly telling Rebecca that of course he'd get her a Pokemon to transport her home as soon as the tests were done, and he was sorry for the delay.

"It's weird. You can know a Pokemon for years, travel with them, really feel like you understand them, but you can never talk to them, not with them talking back. It's, it's really something else. And it was a great experience, but I'm not sure I'd want _my_ Pokemon constantly yattering at me like that… you're still furious with me, huh?"

"Mmhmm." She peered more closely at one of the smaller titles, trying to decipher the symbols, so it took her a few seconds to fully process his words. "Oh! Um, I mean, not really?"

She turned to look at him, embarrassed, and found that he was grinning widely. "I knew you weren't paying attention!"

The embarrassment disappeared. She rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, though, I'm sorry about dragging you around after the whole Mew thing. I can get a little, uh, overeager?" He shrugged. "I guess I'm just saying, I don't want you to leave and then start spreading stories that I'm some kind of awful pretentious kidnapper. So, can we at least become pleasant acquaintances?"

Rebecca looked at him carefully. He seemed far too innocent again, with that cheerful smile in place, with that hand extended in a symbol of friendship. "You don't actually expect me to leave, do you?"

The smile fell off of his face. "_Dang._ How do you do that?"

She couldn't help it- she had to grin. "Come on, Ferk, let's hear the truth this time."

"Alright, here goes." He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at her seriously. "I want you to travel with me around the world, to track down legendaries. I love finding information that others haven't already found- I always have- but the legendaries can get really temperamental, and the ones that don't attack you tend to hide. If you could help, by calming them down or something, I could get down almost anything on them, from physical description to the attacks they use. And if you could keep figuring out their temperaments, understanding them, that'd help people understand how they came to be who they are today." He quirked up an eyebrow, and the grin flashed back on. "Come on, I even made a speech for you. You know you want to say yes."

And, surprisingly, she did.


	6. Moshi

As far as Moshi could tell, the main disadvantage to training in a water-based environment was that it made one's Pokemon _suck_ against Electric types.

He knew he was a good trainer, since he had managed to beat all four gym leaders in the Orange League and even take out three of Drake's Pokemon, all in the first year of his journey. He had figured that it would take only a year or two to beat Kanto's gym challenge, including side trips to various other collections of islands on the way. And he had already beaten three of the leaders with relative ease. But Lt. Surge was, he was…

"Shocking?" he murmured aloud, letting himself grin.

Nidorina looked up from the plant she was nibbling delicately on, eyeing him in a speculative manner.

"Hey, don't bash my puns," he told her playfully, flopping down to lie on the grass. "We wouldn't be stuck on the outskirts of this city if you'd just give in to evolving. Man, you'd _sweep_ Surge as a Nidoqueen!"

"Nii." She turned back to eating, unimpressed.

"Anyway, hurry up your meal. We need to get back to work on your Rock Smash." He made of a show of checking his watch, and sat up with a start when he saw the actual time. "Oh, _great_- the gym closes in fifteen minutes. See what happens when you procrastinate?"

"Dori."

He had a sneaking suspicion that she was putting the blame on him. "Dude! That wasn't procrastinating, that was being polite. To a girl. Who happened to be totally hot."

Nidorina still wasn't impressed.

"Anyway, I think Surge is starting to get sick of me. Today was, what, our eighth battle?" Moshi played with a lock of his shaggy blue-tinted black hair, thinking. "Y'know, maybe we should take a break from him. We could always fly back later. D'ya think Ditto will give me grief if we just head back up to Cerulean to mess around in the Game Corner for a few days? I think I could totally get a Porygon, if I tried hard enough."

Ditto was the most judgmental of his Pokemon, probably because it was also his best battler. It was as stubborn as the day was long, and was growing exponentially more aggravated as they kept losing battles to Lt. Surge.

"Still--" a shrill ringing sound suddenly erupted from his waterproof tote bag, startling Nidorina into backing up. "Oh. Hold that thought, I'm expecting a call." He pulled open the bag, and grabbed his cell phone out from on top of everything else. It opened with an easy flip. "Hey, Suzy, you got to the ship alright?"

"Guess again!" The voice that came out of the phone was male, older, and somewhat familiar. It took Moshi a few awkward moments to place it.

"Oh, Ferk! What's up, man?"

"Eh, I'm just chillin' down at Pallet. Hey, have you been to the Seafoam Islands yet?"

"Uh, not really." Moshi rolled his eyes- subtlety was not one of Ferk's strong points, when he was playing nicely, at least. "Why, did you want to check them out?"

"Sort of. But, you know, I've only got one water Pokemon to surf on, and since I'm bringing Rebecca with me, I need a bit of help with transport, and I know you like exploring new places anyway, so I thought maybe you could help out?"

"Woah, woah, slow down. Who's Rebecca? And why do you need to get there so quickly--"

"Thanks, Mosh', you're a real pal. Meet us down at Oak's lab, okay? Seeya then!"

Moshi frowned as Ferk hung up, waiting for a moment or two before snapping his own phone shut. Ferk had giving one just enough information to make one ragingly curious down to an _art_.

Well, it wasn't like he had anything better to do with his time.

He tugged a Pokeball off of his belt, clicking its button. "Return, Nidorina!" Nidorina watched him disapprovingly as she was sucked up in red light. The Pokeball was snapped back onto his belt, and he clicked a different one off. "C'mon out, Fearow!"

Fearow was released onto one of the lower tree branches in the area, and she ruffled her feathers petulantly. Moshi couldn't blame her for being annoyed with him; Surge's Raichu had zapped her down with thunderbolts in every single one of the battles she'd fought in.

"Hey, Fearow, you wanna get out of here?"

Her head snapped around, and she studied him with one beady eye. If beaks could curve up, he would swear she was smiling.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." He grinned back at her, snatching his tote bag up onto his shoulders. "Destination is Pallet Town." She flew down and landed on the ground next to him, and he climbed onto her back. "Let's get going!"

-

He'd never actually visited Pallet Town before, since he'd been roaming around southern Kanto for most of the past year, but it was easy to fly over the Cycling Road and turn when it curved. He had always enjoyed flying, for the elements of freedom and excitement it brought to life, and for the feeling of wind gusting through his hair. Nevertheless, water was his preferred route of transportation- when it could be taken directly, at least.

He told Fearow to start heading down when he spotted the buildings of Viridian City, and was soon gliding in over the grass to land in Pallet Town. The sun was starting to set, and there was a dusky glow over the buildings. It was a quaint setting, a pretty picture.

Unfortunately, none of the pretty little houses looked even the least bit like a laboratory.

"You'd think they'd put out signs, or make some kind of tour," he mumbled to himself (he had recalled Fearow as soon as they landed). "Turn right and you'll see the permanent residence of Professor Oak, greatest Pokemon researcher of our time. Then, if you'll look behind and to your left, you may be able to get a glimpse of the world-renowned Kensignton Burger Joint, where dozens of trainers come to stuff their faces every - _yowch!_"

He had walked straight into an invisible wall. Moshi hopped (he had stubbed his toes, and it hurt a ridiculous amount) in a circle, trying to spot the culprit- there was a quiet little house off of the road with a garden in the front, but no living creatures in sight. He cautiously put a hand out in front of himself- yes, there was a barrier there. _How freaking weird_.

But he hadn't stubbed his toes for nothing- in his hopping, he'd discovered a windmill up on the hill. He thought he remembered something about Oak's lab including a windmill. Maybe. Anyway, it was something to work off of.

Not less than ten minutes later, he was banging on Oak's front door, muttering darkly under his breath. _Someone_ had littered the surrounding countryside with invisible barriers, and he now had only one goal in life- to track down that someone, and make them pay for every bruise on his body.

An older girl opened the door, and looked him over with a judging eye. He wasn't going to waste time on pleasantries, since she wasn't _particularly_ hot, though her looks were decent. "Hey, did you put up a bunch of invisible walls out there?"

Her eyebrows shot up, and she turned to shout over her shoulder. "Ferk! I think your friend's here." She turned back to look at him, and shrugged. "I've got no idea what you're talking about, so I'm assuming you're the right person, anyway. Moshi, correct?"

"Uhh… yeah. So that would make you, um…"

"She's Beki," Ferk said, appearing behind the girl and grinning his widest (next to him, the girl muttered 'stop _calling_ me that' darkly). "Mosh'! Dude, you went and grew _again_. You'll catch up to your brother any day now."

"Hopefully not." Moshi's older brother was one of Ferk's original rivals, and rated 'preposterous' on a scale from short to tall. "Ferk, did you put a bunch of invisible walls out there? Don't lie, it's totally something you would do."

Ferk merely put on a pleasant and slightly oblivious expression, but behind him a person appeared who Moshi could actually recognize, if only from publicity shoots- Professor Oak.

He had a feeling that a lot of introductions were about to take place.

-

"So, hold up. Let me get this straight." Moshi squinted at Ferk through the steam that rose off of his cup of tea, settling himself more comfortably into Professor Oak's old couch. "You want me to help you get to—"

"Me and Beki," Ferk interrupted, nodding.

"_Rebecca,_" the girl growled, glaring at him.

"Whatever, to get to the Seafoam Islands so you can track down-" Moshie swallowed- "Articuno?"

"Oh, miracle of miracles! The boy has not lost his sense of hearing after all!" Ferk exclaimed, flinging his arm out and nearly hitting Professor Oak.

Oak glared a warning at Ferk, then turned back to Moshi. "Indeed. It's part of a series of experiments we're running. Unfortunately, Ferk and Rebecca don't have enough water Pokemon to get there on their own, and Ferk's Jynx isn't familiar with the area."

"Couldn't they just borrow some Pokemon from you, just for transportation?" Moshi asked, still mulling the situation over in his mind.

"Perhaps, but then the Pokemon wouldn't be useful if the situation became, ah, dangerous." Oak laughed when Moshi jostled his tea, nearly spilling it down his front. "But that's another good reason for you to go with them; another powerful trainer would be most helpful!"

"Yeah, but, I'm, uh, not that… 'sperienced… still got loads to, uh, do… um…" Moshi trailed off as he sipped at his tea, looking away purposefully. He was fine with the occasional adventure, and he even liked going after trouble every now and then, but one of the legendary birds?

"Aw, come on! Don't tell me you're scared," Ferk whined, waggling his eyebrows at the suggestion. Next to him, Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"Me, scared?" Moshi snorted. "Not cool, dude! I am _never_ scared, and you know that, kapeesh?" He determinedly slurped at his tea again before speaking. "I'm just smart s'all. And going after Articuno? Dude! That's just not smart at all."

"You wouldn't be in danger," Rebecca said drily. "In fact, you could stay outside and ignore everything we do if you wanted to."

"Wouldn't be much point in going with you, then," Moshi muttered drily.

"So, what do you want, then?" Rebecca asked. "To be cited in the papers on any information gained?"

Moshi raised his eyebrows at her, unsure of whether she was joking or not. Her suggestion didn't sound like a reward at all.

"Of course," Professor Oak added, "the lab would also provide a basic salary for your time and help, if you're worried about expenses, so—"

"Done!" Moshi grinned; now he was back on familiar ground. Being beaten by Lt. Surge on a daily basis for the past week or so _had_ lost him a lot of cash. "But I get a bonus if there's any real danger, 'kay?"

Oak frowned slightly at his words, but nodded briskly after pausing for only a moment or two. "Well, that settles it, then. You three can head off tomorrow morning, and," he turned to Ferk, "be sure to send me regular updates!"

"Yeah, yeah." Ferk gulped down his remaining tea and grinned. "Oh! Moshi, could I use your Slowpoke when we're travelling? Please?"

"Uh… sure, I guess. Why not just use your own Lanturn?"

"… because I like Slowpoke better."

Rebecca shook her head as she stood up, automatically collecting teacups from everyone. "Which Pokemon will we be taking, then?"

"I'll ride on my Seaking," Moshi said cheerfully. "You can tag along w'me, or my Ditto can transform into a boat or something, or you can fly on Fearow, or I guess I could get Exeggcute to use psychic to give you a boost but that might get complicated…"

"Sounds like you travel a lot," she said drily, stacking his cup on top of her own.

"Yep. Guess that I do." He grinned widely, shooting her a wink. "And trust me, babe, you'll be glad that I know what I'm doing by the time this crazy adventure is done!"


	7. Route 21

_Regular updates again? WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE?!?!?_

_Check the first chapter for a full explanation of what I'm doing._

_

* * *

_

As it turned out, Rebecca was the complete opposite of Moshi in more than just personality- she had no experience in travelling, either.

"So, looks like Fearow's out, too," Moshi said with a sigh. He and Ferk were ready to go- both Seaking and Slowpoke were already out, both boys had changed into swimgear, and Ferk had put all of their supplies into waterproof packs. Rebecca, however, seemed to be having trouble with her actual method of transportation.

He had tried getting her to ride with him on Seaking, but his water Pokemon had shot off into deeper water as soon as she'd grabbed for his horn. Then he'd tried Nidorina, who could swim to some degree, but the usually-placid Pokemon had simply gone right back into her Poke ball when Rebecca tried to touch her. Fearow had been no better- she'd startled at the mere verbal suggestion that she let Rebecca ride her, and was now perched on Moshi's shoulder, eyeing all the humans around her with utmost derision. It didn't help that she was _heavy_.

"Return," Moshi grunted, pointing the Poke ball at her. As she was zapped away he went for the fifth ball on his belt, tossing it up in the air after a pause. "S'worth a shot, anyway."

Ditto materialized on the ground, stretching its pink limbs out far to either side and looking around for its opponent.

"And what makes you think this one will be any better?" Rebecca asked dryly, folding her arms over her chest. She was in swimgear as well, a one-piece suit borrowed from Professor Oak that was usually used for diving. She was also wearing goggles over her glasses, which Moshi personally thought made her look like a dork.

"It's all in how you phrase it," Moshi said sagely. He then turned towards his Pokemon. "Hey, Ditto, no battle today."

"Di, di itto dit!" the pink Pokemon replied acidly, stretching its head up to glare at its trainer.

"Aw, c'mon, don't give me sass. I've got a challenge for you, dude!" At the word 'challenge', the Ditto perked up noticeably. "I bet you can't transform into a boat- a really big boat, big enough to hold a person."

The Ditto didn't respond; it just jumped into the water, spreading out as it did so. Its body seemed to flatten out as it spread, and its mouth stretched, and its middle dipped down, until there was finally a reasonably good duplicate of a canoe bobbing up and down in the water, with Ditto's stretched-out face at the front.

"Excellent! But," Moshi continued, "you only win the bet if you can keep the shape all the way to the Seafoam Islands,"

"Diiii," the Pokemon replied, in a much higher voice than before.

"Even more excellent." Moshi turned, grinning, to Rebecca. "Problem solved!"

"Hmph." She picked up the bag that had been designated to her, then carefully jumped from the shore onto Ditto. The Pokemon squeaked when she hit him, then let out a high-pitched range of protesting "Di, toto it to-di ditto!"s, but as it didn't seem like it was about to dump her, Moshi let it go.

"You guys," came Ferk's whining voice, "can we go already? I'm getting boooooored."

Moshi glanced over at the other trainer, who was already in the water. Ferk had spent the past five minutes talking excitedly at his Slowpoke, who looked like he was dozing. All of Ferk's supplies, as well as his Poke balls, were safely stashed away in the bag strapped onto his back.

"Dude, I'm coming," Moshi replied, snapping his own Poke balls off of his belt and stuffing them into his tote bag, which he then tied and zipped closed. He'd had too much experience with waterlogged supplies to risk it ever happening again. "Ready, Seaking?"

His fish-like Pokemon swam back in close enough for Moshi to jump in and get a hold on his back. The young trainer didn't spare a second glance for the Pallet docks behind him- as soon as he had hit the water, he knew what he was doing. "Let's go!" he called, laughing as Seaking sped ahead.

-

"Stop-off at Cinnabar Island," Moshi shouted cheerfully, startling Rebecca out of her nap. "Come on, you lazies, up and at'm!"

"Easy for you to say," Rebecca muttered, sitting up and shielding her eyes to look around. Travelling down Route 21 had been… surprisingly boring. There had been almost no trainers to speak of, only a few fishermen who had settled down on the tiny islands that spotted the watery route. Though the wild Tentacool had been plentiful, they'd been scared off by the sight of three Pokemon travelling together, and nothing had attacked them. Since Moshi had seemed content to stay quiet and Ferk had spent the entire trip talking excitedly at the Slowpoke he rode, there had been nothing to distract her at all. Even the Ditto had been okay- sure, it'd completely ignored her, and she'd almost been dumped into the water twice when it made sharp turns, but it hadn't been _hostile_.

It was almost possible to forget that they were on a quest to track down super-powerful, super-dangerous legendary Pokemon.

"Why're we stopping?" Ferk asked, shouting to make his voice heard over the splashing created by their Pokemon. "Cinnabar's been practically deserted since the eruption."

"They've got a Pokemon Center, though, and I want my team to rest before we go down Route 20," Moshi shouted sternly. "I don't want them overdoing it, y'know."

Ferk just shrugged at that, so they all aimed for the shore as they reached the largest island. Rebecca looked around curiously, noting the giant rocks that still lay everywhere, embedded in sand and shallow water. Most of the land had been fenced off, and there were signs posted every few hundred meters that read 'DANGER- DO NOT ENTER'. Once, she even noticed a Graveler, rolling downhill on the other side of the fence.

"There it is," Ferk finally pointed out, as they reached the part of the shore where the fence curved around. One corner of the island looked like it was still open to the public. A tiny dock with only one boat attached jutted out of the land, and a few buildings with construction debris still surrounding them were clustered near the mountain's edge. One had the signature red roof of a Pokemon Center.

The three pulled up on shore, and Moshi returned his Pokemon from the water, Ditto still in its unusual shape. They then trudged off towards the Center, Ferk blathering about how the Slowpoke really seemed quite intelligent when you could get it to respond while the other two ignored him.

When Moshi pushed open the door to the Center, Rebecca looked around, curious. The waiting room was quite small, and only two people were currently lounging about, two young girls who were eagerly comparing their Staryu.

"Hi there, Nurse Joy," Moshi said flippantly, flipping his soggy hair back as he sauntered up to the counter. Rebecca rolled her eyes, edging off towards the waiting area.

"Why, hello young- oh, goodness! You're soaking wet!"

"Um, yeah." Moshi shrugged, continuing to drip on the floor. "We surfed here, so—"

Ignoring the rest of his statement, the nurse bustled out from behind the counter, two large, fluffy towels under her arm. She threw one each over Ferk and Moshi- Rebecca only escaped because she had managed to dry off in the sun in the twenty minutes since she had last been dumped by Ditto. Rolling her eyes, the girl turned around completely and made her way towards the lounge, throwing herself into one of the large armchairs.

Annoyingly, Ferk followed her.

"You look depressed," he commented cheerfully, rubbing the towel over his head vigorously. "What's up?"

"I'm not depressed," she grumbled, closing her eyes. "Just tired."

"Seriously? Beki, you gotta build up your stamina. There's no way you can go on a journey without it."

She didn't bother to call him out for giving her a nickname again- he'd been doing it constantly, and correcting him didn't seem to make a difference. Anyway, she'd noticed that he tended to reduce everyone's name to a single-syllable version. "It's not stamina that's the issue, it's all this sun. I'm not used to it, and it's _really_ hot." She frowned, realizing that she was whining, and changed the subject. "So, what's the plan?"

"What plan?" He finally stopped toweling off his hair, leaving it sticking up in clumps of strawberry blonde and faded blue, and spread his towel out on a nearby couch before sitting down. "I wasn't aware we had a plan."

"We can't go up against Articuno without some kind of strategy," she replied dryly. "What do you know about it?"

"Eh, not much." The boy pulled his legs up onto the couch and rested his chin on his knees. "It's got a bad rep, since it's supposed to appear to doomed travelers, but that can't really be confirmed. Besides, there's even a few old records of Articuno saving people who would've died in snowstorms." He flashed her a grin. "We'll need your help to find out more!"

"Sure, sure." Rebecca rolled her eyes- she still wasn't sure she believed in all that mystical mumbo-jumbo. "How do we keep it from attacking us?"

"Articuno doesn't attack peole, usually," Ferk mumbled in reply. "Y'gotta watch out for Zapdos for that."

Rebecca caught a strand of her still-damp hair and twirled it around her fingers, thinking. If they were successful with Articuno, would that mean that they'd go after Zapdos, and then Moltres, afterwards? How many legendary Pokemon could they actually be capable of finding?

Moshi suddenly appeared, jumping over the couch to sit next to Ferk. "It'll take twenty minutes to give my team a good enough rest," he grumbled, pulling open his bag and fishing around inside of it. "Hey, I missed a call! Mew curse it…"

Ferk caught Rebecca's eye, then rolled his own eyes, and she couldn't help but grin.


End file.
